


requiem

by nekokoban



Category: 07-Ghost
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 06:10:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekokoban/pseuds/nekokoban
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In dreams / in in love / in my heart / I search for your footsteps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	requiem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haraamis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haraamis/gifts).



> Yuletide Madness treat! Takes place roughly after chapter 53, but with no super-specific spoilers, and with reference to the scythe in Frau's arm.

_In the stairs, in the snow, and in memories, I search for your footsteps ..._

There had been a few crewmen on his old ship who'd been from Raggs, who'd sung that song as a lullabye. He'd almost learned all the words before the Empire had come and all his friends had left him behind, and then he'd forgotten them for more pressing things.

Teito didn't sing it so much as murmur it, it like he wasn't entirely aware of it, humming it to Capella when it's dark and late, or to himself when he thinks there's no other human around. He didn't have a half-bad voice--better than the caterwauling of drunk air-pirates homesick for their childhoods--but he never put any power into it, no matter how good his lungs were, like he was too afraid of who might hear and remember the words.

+++

_"Frau," Teito says, his voice small and almost lost into the wind, "I was wondering, how did you--"_

Frau revs the bike's engine louder at precisely the right moment, leaning further over the handles and ignoring the way it squawked in protest. Teito's skinny arms tighten around his waist and the next thing he does is yell about stupid careless perverts, slow down, did he want to get them both killed, watch out for those trees! and is distracted. Frau counts it a victory, at least for now.

+++

"You'll have to tell me someday," Teito said. He looked at his arm, and the two symbols burned into his skin already: _Fest_ and _Profe._ "I'm going to see this through to the end, and you're still on the list." He frowned. "Bastien-sama said--"

"The old man didn't know anything," Frau said. He didn't look at Teito, though he could feel the brat's eyes boring into his back now. "And you don't need to know that yet."

"What District are you even--"

Frau turned and exhaled smoke into Teito's face. The brat sputtered and fell back, waving his hands. "We'll get there when we get there," he says. "The journey's as important as the destination, here. You want this to happen, you follow the rules."

+++

_In dreams, in love, in my heart, I search for your footsteps, Teito sings; it's the same distracted tone as always, but there is more confidence now, as if he _knows_ the words now, as if there's more of him to put into the old words of his kingdom. He seems less conscious of a possible audience now, though he must know that he's not alone--that Capella is dozing in the crook of Frau's arm, and that Frau is right behind him._

Frau listens to that song with his eyes closed, and for a moment, the aching in his arm subsides.


End file.
